About comments in other languages

Well guys, I have been receiving comments in what looks like the Chinese (or the Japanese) language for some time now. May be my small efforts at bringing a simple truth across might be making some little impact on the followers of two of the ancient cultures in the world. If so I am very glad. But sadly this blog is in English and I don't know a word of the languages that those comments are written in………Hence I am in a little bit of a predicament here.


The thoughts expressed in them could be the most sublime or the most beautiful for all I know. But as I can't understand their import or meaning I have little option but to reject them. This in no way reflects on the genuine intentions of the authors of the comments and I hereby express my regret in failing to understand them.

My thanks too are intimated for their kindness in taking an interest in what I write. But I am unable to publish them in the blog and though I would very much like to learn those beautiful tongues, I am just not in a position to do so now.


So, if you like the blog or what's written in it, you can say that in very simple English. Let me also say that I am no anglophile and English is only a second language to me. But a blog in any language hopes for comments in that language.

So guys, please do not be offended if I don't publish your beautiful comments in other languages in my blog.

Thank you!

Sambavi Mudra as per Hatha Yoga Pradeepika and Kheranda Samhita

I was recently going through a commentary of Hatha Yoga Pradeepika by Hans Ulrich Rieker and came across these portions about Sambhavi Mudra in the book. It’s a nice translation of the original verses and could be useful to those who are interested in the practice of the Mudra. There are some minor variations to the method of practice and the description of the Mudra to that of mine in my post on it. But in essence they are the same.


Kheranda Samhita also mentions it, but its scant and unsatisfactory. Yet it would be interesting to first look into it before going to the commentary of Rieker.


The Kheranda Samhita discusses it in the the Ch.3 (15) . It is curious to note that it suggests applying Kajal or some sort of eye care to the eyes before starting the practice. I believe it is intended to keep the eyes cool to minimise irritation to the eyes.


Anyway here is the description of the Mudra in the Samhita.


“ After applying kajal or eye-ink to the eyes look at the knower of truth. This is the Sambhavi Mudra hidden in all the sciences.”

“The Vedas, Satstras and puranas are like common prostitutes , but this Sambavi Mudra is like a chaste women, well protected and safe”

“The Lord Siva as well Brahma ( The creator) knows of this Mudra”

“Those who know the sambhavi Mudra is the truth itself . This is true, true , true.”



Here ends the mention of the Mudra in Kheranda Samhita . Now let us go to the commentary of Rieker. I have left the commentary as it is.



Verse “(35) The Vedas, the Shastras and the Puranas are like prostitutes [attainable to all]. The shambhavi mudra, however, is like a chaste woman, carefully guarded.


(36) Shambhavi mudra consists in fixing the mind inwardly [on any one of the chakras], and fixing the eyes without blinking on an external object. This mudra is left secret by the Vedas and Shastras.

(37) It is rightfully called shambhavi mudra, when mind and prana are absorbed by the object, when the eyes become rigid in the contemplation of the object. Once this state has been reached by the grace of the guru, everything perceived becomes a manifestation of the great Shambu (Siva) and is thus beyond emptiness and not−emptiness.

Everything is Siva: everything is kala (light−waves, form, yantra, manifestation of the divine image in all its forms), nada (sound waves, sound) mantra, divine name in all its forms), and bindu (meaning, the divine) and the logos common to both the other spheres).

(39−40) Direct your [inner] gaze upon "light" by slightly raising the eyebrows. Then perform shambhavi mudra as you have learned it. This induces samadhi. −−Some confuse themselves by the alluring promises of the shastras and tantras, others by the Vedic Karmas, and still others by logic. None of them recognizes the real value of this mudra, by the aid of which one can cross the ocean of existence.


(41) With half−closed eyes focused on the tip of the nose, the mind steadily fastened[on its object], and the active prana current of the ida and pingala nadis suspended [by guiding it into the sushumna], thus the yogi reaches the slate of realization of Truth in the form of a radiating light which is the source of all things, and the highest objective to be reached. What higher state is there that he might expect?”

Well practice practice practice and good luck be with you in it.


KEEP THE MIND AT THE POINT BETWEEN THE EYE BROWS

Uththara Geeta

Most of us have heard of Bhagavad Geeta, and some of us have endeavored to understand it too. The Geeta is like a broad spectrum spiritual antiseptic. It considers every kind of mental preferences and prescribes remedies for all sort of spiritual illnesses. People are often confused about the different streams of thought that is seen in it. That is why Arjuna says that he is bewildered by Krishna’s equivocal instructions (Cha.3 verse 2 of Geeta). The Geeta can only be taken as an introduction to spiritual practices.

This is the reason why Krishna later taught the AnuGeeta (the verses that follow geeta) to Arjuna. But he knew that even an intelligent student like Arjuna would find it hard to arrive at truth unless repeatedly advised on it. So in compassion he goes on to teach the Uththara Geeta (Post Geeta) to Arjuna. This is the final advice and culminates the teachings of Geeta.

He takes out the essence of every science in it and teaches it to Arjuna saying “Yal saara bhUtam thadupaasithavyam”. Worship only that which matters. Sciences are many, we could spend our entire life learning them and understanding nothing at all about ourselves.

I will relate to you meaning of the important verses of the advice. They throw light on the practice we are interested in.

Imagine the limitless Chidakasa (inner space, or the space you find within when you close your eyes and turn your attention to your forehead) as the soul or imagine the soul as the inner space so that both becomes merged into one – forget everything else. One should be steadfast and intelligent about it. Never doubt for a moment that what you find within is your true self. As you keep on doing it the breath would become still at the point between the eye brows.

When you do it what happens is this:
Prabhaa sUnyam, manhsUnyam
BudhisUnyam, niraamayam

That is, your consciousness goes through these stages- first, thoughts become nil and the mind remains in its nature of light, in fact mind and this light is one and the same. Slowly the light fades and our psyche remains with its names and forms, this also fades and what remains is the intellect which is still aware of different emotions, then that intellect also fades. After that you can’t say what remains…..

“There the words and mind turns back”

As an Upanishad describes it, this state in indescribable, this state is called Samadhi.

Krishna states emphatically in the verse 10 of the second chapter:

“MuhUrthamapi yogaschEl
NasaagrE mansa saha
Sarvam tharathi papmaanam
Thasya janma sathaarjitham”

That is:

If someone achieves this state for a single minute, all the sins in all the births they ever had become destroyed forever. Now the sins that Krishna speaks of are the foolish entanglement with the world of ignorance which our consciousness ever had.

This is the method of “sadyO mukthi” or “immediate liberation” and Krishna goes on to describe how Krama Mukthi” or step by step liberation can be achieved for the ignorant by following the Kundalini Yoga. We are not concerned about it here.
So,
KEEP YOUR MIND AT THE PLACE BETWEEN THE EYE BROWS

Breathing

Most of us are very busy in our lives. We do not have a spare moment and even when we have it, it is weighed down with the cares and troubles that we generally have. Thoughts come and go, emotions flit through the mind. Everything we see around us brings back memories of things done and reminds us of things which need to be done. We either live in the past or in the future and never in the present. Naturally we are not at peace. We can only be at peace if we live in the present.

Hence, even when we put aside a bit of time for meditation it becomes mostly useless because we can’t rid ourselves of this constant activity of our mind. This is more so when we try to follow a simple technique of meditation like the Sambavi Mudra. If we can quiten the mind it might be of some help in the practice.

So let us talk about the most effective and easy technique to do that- Breathing.

Technicalities about pranayama are not important here and are not necessary for our purpose. Our aim is to lessen the number of thoughts we have so that it would be easy to fix our mind at the Trikut or middle of forehead.

What you do is to breathe deeply when you sit or are lying down for meditation. Just breathe from your abdomen or the pit of your stomach or whatever you like to call it. Names and terms do not matter, breathing long and deep and slow is what matters. Take it as the preparatory exercise before beginning the real meditation. As you do it, follow the breath in an out. There is no need to tire yourself out by rushing things. Slow steady sweet breathes would do it.

If you can manage it keep your spine straight, but even if you can’t do it breathe through the nostrils. This is very important, apart from other ills like colds etc which may result from mouth breathing, breathing through nostrils would make the breath pass though the trikut making us more aware of it. Also breathing through mouth can never be deep. So breathe through the nose at all times.

Well what do you when your nostrils are blocked as sometimes they are? Mostly this does not happen to those who practice pranayama. But if you do not do it but is person who takes a bathe every day, try this technique. When you shower or pour water over your head or are in the pool bathing, keep a little water in the mouth and keep it shut till you have toweled your hair dry. Then spit it out. This works most of the time and clears the nostrils for the day.

I think it works this way. The water that get into you through your head you as well as the mucus which might block the nose otherwise, trickle down to the water kept in the mouth and goes out of you when you spit it out.

Well back to breathing. As you go on doing it you would notice that thoughts are becoming lesser and lesser till they disappear completely. Please remember that we are not trying to fill ourselves with energy by doing it. An excess of energy does more harm than good to our state of mind. Our primary purpose is getting rid of unwanted thoughts and emotions so that we can bring our attention to our foreheads.

There would come a time when you are aware that the thoughts, feeling etc have completely disappeared from you for the present then turn your attention to the spot between your eye brows and place your mind there.

Normally the breath or prana becomes still at the place where the mind is placed. I outlined the above technique only for those who find it difficult to control their thoughts whatever they do, at times. All pass though such stages, even the best.

Wish you luck with it

KEEP THE MIND AT THE PLACE BETWEEN THE EYE BROWS

The tale of Svetaketu in the Chandogya Upanishad

Well I think someone wants me to update the blog. That is nice; it shows that there are people out there who want to preserve this effort, whether playfully or otherwise. I will take even the playful efforts if it furthers the cause of knowledge and keep it alive in some form in some one’s mind. Let all beings be illumined.


I am even willing to believe in the theory of the sudden evolution of the human race in the year 2012( not the dooms day theory, I can assure you that would not happen), to a higher spiritual enlightenment. The poor state of affairs in the world makes me wish for it earnestly. Can the few words that I write in a blog with very few followers be the harbinger of that enlightenment? It is amusing to think so, well you know, much stranger things have happened in the world haven’t they?


Well, may be those who plays with this condensed essence of human knowledge might be ushering in that mighty change in our world who knows. I have very little personal interest in it, other than preserving the little body of knowledge for posterity. Let that change happen without any harm to anyone or anybody in the universe.


Anyway, let us do some browsing in the Upanishads and try to find something useful for understanding the world.


Let it be again understood that I have no particular preference in philosophical systems and that I think the whole body of human knowledge is one in essence. It is the heritage of the entire humanity. The only thing which prompts me to use the Upanishads is my familiarity with them.


We will talk about the tale of Svetaketu in the Chandogya Upanishad now. The old masters have subtly hinted at the whole process of evolution in the tale in their inimitable style. It is a beautiful tale and one we can carry in our minds once we have understood the essentials. Now to the tale:

Svetaketu proudly returned home after studying for twelve long years.

Seeing his pride the father asked him:

Did your teachers tell you about that country where the unheard is heard and the unthinked is thought of?

Wondering Svetaketu asked:

Where is that place, my teachers did not teach me that!
His father instructed him:

Once we know what clay is we know about all things made of clay, once we know what gold is we know all things made of gold, once we know what iron is we know what a nail cutter is.

“Ekam-evaa-adwityam” there is only one not many.

It is ‘asat ‘ or non-existent. But then what is the logic behind one nonexistent thing becoming everything else that you see around?

( well you know, this problem is difficult to digest even for the highly intelligent. That was why Sankaracharya introduced the theory of Maya, this world in delusional and not real. The modern science is slowly coming to grips with this fact after the advent of the quantum mechanics)

The one essence imagined “ I shall become many” It produced ‘Thejas’ or primal energy, you can take it as the field which came into being after the big bang. The thejas then thought “I too shall become many” it produced ‘apa’ ( water literally, but let us take it as plasma for the sake of convenience). The apa also thought “I shall be many” and invented ‘anna’ ( literally food, but it is solid matter in essence.) They also thought of becoming many by entering into everything and creating names and forms.


It then decided to make all these a trine (of three parts) to enter into them. Then the Upanishad subtly hints at the way the world is made with the example of fire. It says:

The red part you seen in a flame is the Thejas (energy), the white part is the ‘apa’ (plasma or light), and the black part is ‘anna’ ( food or mass).


Only these three (light, energy and mass) are real. Everything else is linguistically derived forms and names.

The Upanishad then sites the examples of the Sun, the Moon and the Lightening and says that we can see these three in them.

It then come down to the world of individual beings and states how to derive the subtle from what we see and experience on the outside. We might think that those old teachers taught without citing reliable experiments. Just follow this discourse to its end if you can find the text of the Upanishad (the whole of the sixth and seventh chapters). You will become a new person afterwards. It is too long a tale to site in full here. I might do it if someone wants me to do it and I have the time and desire to do it.

KEEP YOUR MIND AT THE PLACE BETWEEN THE EYE BROWS

The point in being creative

It is boring I know, stating the same things over and over again. People go in for variety, and novelty. That is where our aesthetic sense comes in. And that is the starting point of all art. Art is the interpretation of reality as we perceive it. We wake up in the mornings, see the same bed-stead, see the same night lamps, see the same bedside table, see the same walls, the same bed sheets the same curtains, the same flower pots. The window gives us the same trees, the same compound-walls, the same roads the same grainy gravel or cement paths……

We are in despair, the whole humdrummity of life hits us on the head like an umpteen ton hammer. No, we don’t swoon; if we do, that would be an artistic reaction on our parts. But instead we sigh, and get out of the bed, squeeze the same old tube of paste on to the same slightly frayed brush and puts it inside the same old mouth and brushes the same old teeth. We taste the same old mixture of saliva mixed with sweet clay.

We look at the same poor mug seen in the mirror; it had some beauty in the night, in the faded light, now it looks like a baked potato with its skin hanging, in the morning glare. We are not feeling confident, we get inside the toilet and try not to think of what goes on in there.

No one can be blamed for it. I am often like that too. I look in the mirror; I see the same face every day. I get bored, so I lengthen the side burns or wear a beard or shave everything off. Sometimes I shorten my hair or grow it long, I turn my moustache up or down, I wear a Bulganin or a French beard. I put on glasses, different types, different shades, different designs, in the hopes all that would alter the boring thing that I see in the mirror.

Even these are creative efforts aimed at producing a different kind of reality than we do normally see. We do that by manipulating things that we have a right on. We can’t alter the public road, or the skies or the sun, so we have to be satisfied with the small things we can lay our hands on. We even try to alter the lives of the people we meet out of this sheer vacuity. I would not call it viciousness. We are out to create something new and we are so sure that we have a right to do it. We have knowledge haven’t we? We have even friends to supply material to bolster up our puny ego. Although we have little inkling what goes on in our own lives. If anyone asks us what neuron is functioning at any given moment we would either take recourse behind laughter or rage….

We are lost souls, the sooner we realize it the better. We can’t alter any ones lives without altering something in ourselves. If we are really within ourselves we would naturally effect a change in others even otherwise, even without doing anything. Sometimes we would shock them right into their being by our mere presence, or the mere fact that we exist. It is a jolt that is life changing. But some would even then cling to their old lives and try to fake their older selves.

I am sorry to say this, but we are wrong, once we come into contact with something real, we alter even without knowing ourselves. There are forces at work which makes it happen. I watch these forces in operation all the time. I need not react to them, I can even ignore them, but I like this play, this strange display of self importance in things. I would like to always play along. I am the sportive guy.

Life is still a game which makes me laugh, well I would have liked to laugh with everyone of you but unfortunately some of us laugh without mirth, without real pleasure, when some of us die we would cling to earth, frantically thinking about our wives, husbands, children, houses, jewelry, positions in life, friends, bank balances, and art and cart….

Well hopefully when I die, I would dissolve into elements and be no more be anywhere in the individual sense. And my poor sense of humor calls it liberation. Anyway, if any of you know of anything else about my evolution I would be delighted to hear it.

May be there are souls out there who can correct me in this ‘mistaken’ assumption. If so they are welcome here to predict my path. You see I love this dual nonsense called life. I would be the very devil if I can continue this farce. Would some kind souls come and predict that I would be Satan or at least some minor devil in after life. Come on; be kind to a person who has been trying to tell you what he knows about reality.

Or at least can’t you say that I am a great soul, godlike or even god. It would be a great boost to my ego. I would turn my collar up and would prance about. Okay don’t even go to that length, there is no need to be nice about it. So don’t mince words, say that I would become anything, any mean thing. Yet my poor doubt is that everything has to pass through every other existing state as this farce unfolds. The god would pass through different states to become the devil and the devil would become god. I know that this is a destructive statement and would make some of you shiver to your very core. But unfortunately this is the truth. Any child would see it.

The only way to get out of this tangle is to go beyond the duality altogether. But I am willing to listen to other options to reach that state.

They say in the ancient texts that I was alone once and I became manifold out of boredom or out of this creative urge in me.(You can take a joke I hope. It’s not really a joke in essence, but its better keep it at that level now)

Idam eka Evaagra aaseel (This one was all alone)
Naanyath kinchanamishat (There was nothing else to be seen)
Thadekshata (this one mused)
Bahusyam prajaayEti (I shall become many)

My friends that is how I became the world….. I would go back to the earlier state the moment I attract all this back into me. Do you think I am raving? This I AM is not a thing you know about then. You need to try harder.

Okay I will play this game of duality with you. Tell me of someone who has gone beyond the Buddha and I will follow you and won’t stop following you, tell me about a god who won’t become a devil as time passes and I would become a convert to that faith. I am delighted with illumined souls who can amass virtue alone on one side and oust all evil from the world. Prove that it can be done and that the world is non-dual, and I will be your slave from then onwards. Prove it with convincing arguments.

If you can’t, well here is what you do.

KEEP YOUR MIND AT THE PLACE BETWEEN THE EYE BROWS.

Keep at it, keep at it, keep at it.

Who in the gods name am I

Well what do we really search for?


Do you have any idea?


I know that you haven’t. Don’t be peevish when you listen to this, it is the honest fact that you haven’t. None has. Some would say that they are searching for truth if they are very hard pressed. But what is the use of talking about something you have no idea about? What do they mean by truth? Come on, tell me that. Anyone?


We live like dazed beings relying on whatever comes our way, in desperation some have started to say that there are multiple realities- but really!


You see, there is only one reality that is your own; you don’t have to run anywhere to find it. It is already yours; there is no need even to search for it.


All the trouble starts when we want to find it.


Even those who realize this intuitively don’t know how to go about it. They run from people to people. I have nothing against these guys, some of them as I already stated in my earlier posts are great yogis. They can show you wonderful things. They can awaken forces like Kundalini within you. They might produce ashes out of the thin air and talk about your past and future in detail.


Well what of that? A person who knows some part of a book by heart can tell you of certain events in the story. It’s not such a great thing if you put your mind to it. It’s gained through certain techniques and practices; occasionally it might even be congenital.


Well if you are satisfied with it, its okay with me, you have every right to become deluded and muddled and to be led on a path which would not end till the dooms day comes. It’s your life, it’s your choice.

But to those others who are troubled by this one question:


Who in the gods name am I?


I can point you the way to find it. I have already done so. It’s the only method that there is and it is the only technique worth trying.


This comes to you without any charge, if you are deluded by the notions of worth, status, morals, learning etc.. Well what can me or any one do in your case?


You see there have always been people out to murder those who know, so that the world would remain deluded for all ages to come. Buddha tried to show people how to go about meditation.


He held up a flower and just looked at it. Only one among the audience understood.


Millennia’s went. Have the people become any the wiser? The world is still where it was then, may be it has become worse. Some have even started to claim that it is all an old world notion. They just don’t know what they mean by it. They really have no idea what time itself is.


So what do those who want to learn about themselves do?


They keep their mind at the place between the eye brows; they work at it, till the truth comes out.


KEEP THE MIND AT THE SPOT BETWEEN EYE BROWS.